New details have emerged around the imminent release of files concerning the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, as announced on Thursday by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
At a White House cabinet meeting, Gabbard disclosed that her team is presently digitising the RFK and King records. “I’ve had over 100 people working around the clock to scan the paper around RFK, senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, as well as Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination,” she said. “These have been sitting in boxes and storage for decades,” Gabbard added. “They have never been scanned or seen before. We’ll have those ready to release here within the next few days.”
The initiative follows President Donald Trump‘s executive order, issued in January, mandating the unredacted disclosure of these records, alongside documents pertaining to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
The National Archives completed the release of the final documents related to President Kennedy’s November 1963 assassination earlier in March.
Despite releasing millions of pages over recent decades regarding President Kennedy’s assassination, the National Archives had retained numerous documents at the request of both the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Warren Commission’s investigation determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine sharpshooter, acted independently in killing the 46-year-old president.
The official findings have not quietened doubts about alternate theories surrounding Kennedy’s death in Dallas, Texas, with the gradual document release contributing to ongoing speculation.
In June 1968, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-Jordanian individual, assassinated Robert F Kennedy, the president’s younger brother, during his Democratic presidential nomination campaign in California.
Meanwhile, King’s life ended in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968. James Earl Ray admitted to King’s murder, receiving a 99-year prison sentence. He died in 1998 while serving his sentence.